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How to Decorate a Cake
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Sep 6, 2024
Layer your cake and fillings, cover everything in buttercream or any other frosting, add some decorations, and tadaa! With the right tips and tricks it really can be this easy and in this tutorial I’ll show you how to decorate a cake! 💫Start your FREE 7 day trial on my cake school https://britishgirlbakes.teachable.com/p/all-you-can-cake/ 🎂LEARN The Basics of Cake and The Basics of Buttercream in my most popular online courses! https://britishgirlbakes.teachable.com/ 👩🏼🍳My 4 Minute Buttercream recipe https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/recipes/buttercream-frosting/ 📄READ a written version of this tutorial (with photos!) https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/how-to-decorate-a-cake/ 👍Please LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to my channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every week! 💬 SAY HI! Website: https://www.britishgirlbakes.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/britishgirlbakes
View Video Transcript
0:00
layer your cake and fillings, cover everything in buttercream or any other frosting
0:04
add some decorations, and ta-da! With the right tips and tricks, it really can be this easy
0:11
and in this tutorial I'll show you how to decorate a cake like this
0:15
Maybe the most important part is to pipe or spread a bit of buttercream onto the middle
0:20
of your cakeboard to attach the cake so it doesn't slip and slide around while you frost and decorate it
0:27
Push your first layer of cake down onto this and it will act like glue to hold it still
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Alternate between your cake layers and your filling and you might choose to divide your cake layers in half
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to make twice as many cake layers which means a lot more filling in between them as well
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Your filling can be buttercream like this or you can use jam or lemon curd or
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Nutella or anything else you like. The purpose of the filling is to add flavor in between the
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cake layers but it also helps to level the cake so that it's flat for every layer you put on top
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and it acts as glue to hold the next cake layer in place so that the cake is straight
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You can pipe this on using a piping bag or you can spread it on. Using a piping bag is quicker and neater, but both work
1:09
After you've assembled your cake, it's time for the crumb coat, which is the first layer of frosting you're going to put onto your cake
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Spread this all over the top of the cake and around the sides Or you could pipe it on first if you want to The purpose of the crumb coat is to trap any crumbs that come off the cake So they get stuck in this layer of frosting and they don go into the final layer of frosting
1:29
So you won't have any visible crumbs on your cake. Because this is going to be covered up with another layer of frosting
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this doesn't need to be really neat. But it does need to give the cake a nice shape with straight sides and a level top
1:42
And it needs to cover up all of the cake so that there's no naked cake exposed because then those crumbs can get into the final layer of frosting. When you finish your
1:51
crumb coat, put the cake into the fridge or the freezer to chill it, 15 minutes in the freezer
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30 minutes in the fridge, and this will set the crumb coat. Now when you add your final layer
2:01
of frosting, this frosting will sit on top of the crumb coat instead of blending together with it
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and that's what keeps the crumbs out of the final layer of frosting. After spreading your
2:11
frosting all over the top and sides of your cake, switch to a straight cake comb
2:15
and this is the first reason for using a cakeboard. It provides a flat surface to rest your cake comb on
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so that you can line the comb up straight against the cake and create straight sides on the cake
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as you spin the turntable and scrape around the cake. So push the base of your cake comb down on the cake board
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as you spin the cake and press very gently against the cake to scrape off the outer layer of frosting If you press too hard you cause the buttercream to tear and create air bubbles and you might also take off too much frosting and expose the crumb coat underneath
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After scraping around the cake a few times until the frosting is smooth
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tidy up the top edge by pushing sideways with your offset spatula
2:56
Make sure you don't push down because that will cause bulges around the sides of the cake
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If you want to add any sprinkles to the cake, the best time is now while the frosting is
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still soft and sticky. Lift your cake up and put it onto a tray which is going to catch any falling
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sprinkles so you don't make a big mess. And this is the second reason for using a cakeboard. It makes it
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very easy to move the cake around while you're decorating it or when you finish to transport or serve it
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I like to pick the big sprinkles out of a sprinkle mix and just push the smaller ones into the side of
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the cake, pressing them into the bottom inch or so of the frosting and then at the end hand place the
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biggest sprinkles so that they evenly spread around the cake. When you finish, tap the cakeboard a few
3:39
times so that all of the extra sprinkles fall off and the reason you can do this is because you've
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chilled the cake so it's set onto that dot of buttercream at the bottom of the cake, attaching it to
3:49
the cake board. So you don't need to worry about the cake falling over. Tilt the tray so that all of the
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sprinkles roll down to the bottom corner and then pour them back into the bottle or jar that you have your sprinkles in Before piping onto the top of the cake I really recommend chilling the cake briefly to set the frosting 15 minutes in the freezer or 30
4:07
minutes in the fridge is fine. While it's in the fridge or freezer, scoop up your leftover frosting
4:12
and put it into a piping bag fitted with any star-shaped tip. This is a 1M tip. Take your cake out and that
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short amount of time in the fridge or freezer will have firmed up the frosting enough so that the weight
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of these swells you pipe on top doesn't cause the frosting to sink or droop
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You can pipe very tall swells onto a cake like the ones you would pipe onto a cupcake
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or just pipe a few rings. I'm piping two laps around each of these swells
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always pulling away in the same direction so that the swells look neat at the end
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Add a few more sprinkles on top and do this straightaway while the piping is still soft and sticky
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so that the sprinkles attach really easily. I recommend storing cakes in the fridge
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if you're going to keep them overnight, so that the frosting and decorations don't droop or slide off the cake
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But take the cake out of the fridge two to four hours before you serve the cake
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so that the cake and butter cream can warm up to room temperature, and that's when it will taste the best
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I hope this tutorial has been useful. I can't wait for you to make your first cake
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Visit my cake school over on British Girlbakes.com to learn hundreds of cake decorating techniques and designs in my online courses and memberships
5:16
Thanks for watching. Thank you
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